Complex Systems Task Group Summaries (2009) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Task Group Summary 2--What does it take to achieve a sustainable future? The problem of the commons: achieving a sustainable quality of life.
Task Group Summary 2--What does it take to achieve a sustainable future? The problem of the commons: achieving a sustainable quality of life.
Pages 13-20
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 13... ...
. Issues in hunger include: • Consumers' inability to pay for food • Growers' inability to purchase seed, fertilizer, equipment, and other necessities for growing food, to get it to market, and to sell it at a profit • Cultural taboos such as fear of genetically modified organisms • Cultural limitations on what foods people are willing to eat • Politically motivated agricultural subsidies in rich countries that undercut the ability of food producers in poor countries to compete in world markets • Food price controls imposed by fearful governments in developing countries that limit farmers' incomes Demographic projections suggest that nearly all of the next 2.5 to 3 billion people to be added to the planet by 2050 will live in cities in poor countries.
|
From page 14... ...
Perhaps such simple systems can be modeled and the outcomes experimentally verified. Particularly hospitable and particularly inhospitable situations can be examined. In addition, we could examine evolutionary theory, particularly theories of social evolution and mechanisms of conflict and conflict resolution be used on a global human scale.
|
From page 15... ...
1999. TASK GROUP MEMBERS • James Crutchfield, University of California, Davis • Ana Diez Roux, University of Michigan • Doyne Farmer, Santa Fe Institute • James Gardner, Gardner & Gardner, Attorneys, PC • Murray Gell-Mann, Santa Fe Institute • Jessica Hellmann, University of Notre Dame • Paul Humphreys, University of Virginia • George Kaplan, University of Michigan TASK GROUP SUMMARY By Monica Heger, Graduate Science Writing Student, New York University If the entire world consumed as much as the average United States citizen, we would need 4.5 Earths to sustain us.
|
From page 16... ...
What Is Sustainability? Many traditional economic models assumed that humanity depends on steady economic growth worldwide.
|
From page 17... ...
Neural networks are modeling techniques that can analyze nonlinear systems. They were originally developed to explain the neural networks in the brain, but can be applied to almost any system that cannot be explained linearly.
|
From page 18... ...
Even though the model will take into account many different variables, by using a complex systems analysis, such as a the neural networks analysis, it will be possible to identify crucial tipping points and make meaningful policy based on those tipping points, rather than piecemeal policy that often has unintended consequences. In short, the model is assembled with important parts of the global system, and the outcomes represent possible future trajectories.
|
From page 19... ...
How do we live in a sustainable way, how do we ensure our children and grandchildren have a future, how do people living in poverty grow out of it? And how do we devise a model that can meaningfully address all these questions?
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.